Some of you may be aware of my laborious war with spider mites on my hot pepepr plants last year (if not, read my 2008 garden post about it). I had 11 total hot pepper plants and never got a single pepper off any of them. In fact, I didn't even get as far as having a baby hot pepper! The spider mites (and aphids) obliterated every bud and flower within a day of it opening (flower) or turning light green (bud). Well, I was quite upset & determined to get some stinkin' hot peppers this year! =) I am now already further than I was last year. I have a various (Burpee 5 mixed Hot Peppers) hot pepper plant that has 4 wee baby hot pepeprs growing on it now. The flowers fell off a few days ago. Yay! I think it's a Jalapeno plant, but won't know for a few weeks. I am not "counting my chickens before they hatch" either & still plan on keeping a close eye on all my hot pepper plants a few times daily for spider mites and/or aphids. I plan on ordering a 1000 or so ladybugs to get rid of them if they do show up because everything I tried last year (easily 10+ sprays/home-made repellents well over $50) did not work. Wish me luck! Here's a few pictures of the wee babies growing so far. Sorry for the blurriness. I'll see if I can get the wife to take some better pictures soon. You can see the baby peppers though & that's the point of the pictures. Click on them to get the bigger/full size version to be able to see the peppers.
Wee Baby Hot Peppers:
Next on this update, is my first baby Early Girl Tomato! I'm wicked excited. It's great that I have so many Cherry maters growing, but I want big ones too. =) I found another wee Early Girl to the right of this one (barely out of the picture) this morning.
Gosh I thought I had bug problems last year! I hope all goes well with your peppers and tomatoes!
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